Social work practices in health care institutions operating in Turkey

Social work mainly focus on human beings and their welfare. However the history of social work dates back to the existance of humankind, the contemporary meaning of this profession was composed during the 19th century. As being one of the major branches of social work; medical social work practices begun at the beginning of the last century.This study is consisting of three main parts. In the first part; fundamentals of social work and medical social work has been identified. The second part mainly focused on generic social work approach and the theoretical foundations of this concept. The discussion has been supported with relevant case studies. An exploratory qualitative analysis conducted in order to compare the literature-based knowledge on social work with the social work practices conducted in the health care institutions located in Ankara and Eskişehir, Turkey.